The gates for fences circumscribing property are often disposed on a sloped supporting surface such as a hill. Conventially, the gate includes a pair of substantially vertical frame members and a pair of substantially horizontal frame members which are rigidly secured at their juxtaposed end portions forming a rectangular gate. One of the vertical frame members is pivotally mounted on a support post disposed vertically and having one end portion buried in the ground. Inasmuch as the horizontally disposed gate frame members of the rectangular gate do not extend parallel with the supporting surface, normally the ground, in certain applications the outboard end portion of the gate may be disposed from several inches to several feet from the ground even though the end portion of the gate pivotally mounted on the support post may be disposed only a few inches from the ground. This gap defined between the outboard end portion of the gate and the ground for rectangular gates is, of course, dependant on the slope of the ground and the length of the gate structure itself. It will, of course, be recognized that the gap between the gate and the ground may occur at either the outboard end portion of the gate or proximate the supporting post depending on the particular gate structure. The major disadvantage of a substantially rectangular gate disposed on a sloped surface is that a gap will be defined inasmuch as the horizontally disposed frame members of the gate will not extend parallel with the supporting surface such that the gap between the lower edge of the gate and the ground increases proportionally with the ground slope. This gap reduces the security of the property circumscribed by the gate inasmuch as animals and/or persons may be able to crawl through the gap between the gate and the ground to enter the protected property.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a frame member connection assembly for a fence gate which enables adjusting the horizontally disposed gate fame member such that they extend substantially parallel with a sloped supporting surface. Another object of the invention is to provide an improved frame member connection assembly which is inexpensive to manufacture and which can readily be assembled to reduce the cost of gate fabrication. Yet another object of the invention is to provide a frame member connection assembly which can readily position the substantially horizontally disposed gate frame members along an axis parallel with the slope of the supporting surface. Still a further object of the invention is to provide a frame member connection assembly for a fence gate which positions the axes of the juxtaposed end portions of the frame members connected thereby such that the frame members readily pivot with respect to each other for positioning the frame members in conformity with the slope of the ground to eliminate excess gaps between the gate and the supporting surface or ground. Other objects and advantages of the assembly will become apparent upon reading the detailed description together with the drawings described as follows.